A trip to a city bank to change a cheque valued just over half a million dollars ended tragically yesterday for an East Coast Demerara (ECD) rice farmer who was shot dead in a minibus while returning home and the cash snatched.
Hardat Kissoon called `Buju’ of Cane Grove, Mahaica died instantly after being shot once in the chest by a gunman who escaped on a motorcycle which was parked on the UG access road.
Police recovered a helmet at the scene and investigators are hoping that fingerprints could be lifted off of it.
In a press release, police said investigations are being conducted into an armed robbery that occurred at about 14:35 hrs at Turkeyen Public Road, ECD during which Kissoon was shot and killed.
Investigations, according to the police, have revealed that Kissoon was travelling in a minibus when another man in the vehicle requested to get off.
“As the man was passing Hardat Kissoon he pulled out a firearm and held him at gunpoint and demanded a bag that he had in his possession. A struggle ensued over the bag during which Hardat Kissoon was shot to his chest and the perpetrator escaped with the bag,” the release said.
Kissoon was rushed to the Georgetown Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The man’s mother Ramdei Ramgobin told Stabroek News outside the Sparendaam Police Station that the father of three left home around 7.30 am “to go to the bank to change a paddy cheque.” The woman explained that she later got a message that she should go to the station since something had happened to him. On arrival she was greeted with the news that he “get shot in de bus.”
She explained that Kissoon, who was one of eight children, planted his father’s rice fields and had received the cheque from a rice mill in Cane Grove to which he had previously sold paddy.
An emotional ‘Sodo’ (only name given) recalled last seeing his brother when he stopped off his “paddy shying” to travel to the city to change the cheque. He, too, said he had been informed that Kissoon was involved in an incident, but was later told he had been shot and killed.
A relative related to this newspaper that Kissoon’s father died about two years ago and left his rice fields to him and his siblings. She explained that each sibling took turns with the crop and recently it was Kissoon’s turn. Kissoon, she said, also planted bora.
The woman expressed disagreement with the rice mills paying farmers with cheques. “They don’t give you cash. I think they should because people does have to travel all the way to Georgetown [to cash the cheques],” she lamented stressing on this practice puts farmers in danger. Mahaica has no bank.
Followed
A police source told Stabroek News that from all indications Kissoon was marked from the time he left the bank. Stabroek News was told that it was believed that after changing his cheque and leaving the bank which is located in the busy downtown area, Kissoon would have headed to the Route 44 bus park to catch a vehicle to go home.
One police official said investigators are working with the theory that the gunman joined the same bus that Kissoon had jumped in and ensured that he sat close to him.
Kissoon was seated in the back seat and based on what this newspaper was told while the bus was on the Turkeyen Public Road the gunman asked to be put off at the UG access road.
Stabroek News spoke to a man who was seated at the front of the bus. He was not clear as to where the gunman was seated but based on what the police told Stabroek News it would have been either right next to Kissoon or at the other end of that seat.
Sources said the gunman dropped his yellow and black helmet in the bus as he scuffled with Kissoon.
The incident happened so quickly that persons had little time to react as within the blink of an eye, the gunman had made it across the road and had jumped onto the back of a motorcycle which was driven by an accomplice.
Police have often warned businesspersons against leaving banks with large amounts of cash. There have been countless instances of persons being held at gunpoint or shot and robbed after leaving a bank.
